National Parks of Taiwan

Since the enactment of the National Park Law in 1972, Taiwan has subsequently established 10 National (nature) Parks. The National Park volunteers are divided into two main categories: conservation volunteers and tour guide volunteers.

The tour guide volunteers are responsible for guiding tour groups, providing customer service at visitor centers, guiding visitors in exhibition halls, and supporting various activities; the conservation volunteers assist in promoting resource conservation, and maintaining trails and mountain cabins, among other activities.

The volunteers and the environmental education teachers at the Headquarters of each National Park work together to organize environmental education programs, with a variety of educational performances. These activities include using existing picture books to tell stories, or making hand-made paper theaters, glove puppet plays, environmental dramas, and street performances. These performances are showcased around schools and to the general public to promote environmental education concepts and the conservation achievements of our National Parks.

Due to the vast area of the National Parks, in addition to the conservation park rangers, we also have to rely on the assistance of conservation volunteers in order to maintain the environment of our National Parks.

Take the Yushan National Park as an example, the area under its jurisdiction is over 100,000 hectares. The work of conservation volunteers includes monitoring biological resources, investigating roadkill, teaching the public not to feed wild animals, inspecting and maintaining mountain cabins, trail facilities, mountain cabin lights, and power facilities, monitoring and maintaining ecological toilets, checking park admission, promoting hiking safety, and assisting mountain accidents, among others.

Between 2017 to 2020, Yushan conservation volunteers transported various solar power materials to the mountain refuge cabins and completed the restoration of solar power in nine refuge cabins, bringing light back to the cabins.

Established in 2009, the Taijiang National Park Headquarters not only contains rich wetland ecosystems, but also has prolific historical and cultural backgrounds. To let the public know more about its historical development, the National Park team launched a 10-minute mini-theater about the stories of Taijiang./p>

Taijiang has a unique geographical location and has been the site of many key events in Taiwan. Through a lively and entertaining interpretation of historical events, and with the help of an exhibition and video guides in the Visitor Center, the public can better understand the history of Taijiang.

Behind the vivid and fun performance, a lot of time and effort was put into verifying all the historical material, rehearsals, and making props by hand. The script was completed through the collaboration of volunteers and experts, and finalized after numerous exchanges and revisions.

There are 18 volunteer service teams managed by the 9 National (Nature) Park Headquarters under the jurisdiction of the Construction and Planning Agency. The volunteers come from all walks of life, each with their own qualifications and professional expertise. They share a high degree of recognition of the National Park philosophy, and participate enthusiastically in public affairs, making them undoubtedly the strongest partners for the National Park Headquarters and the guardians of our National Parks.